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In case the commandant of the latter post gave the assurance required from him, any peaceable intercourse between it and the settlement on Bayou Pierre was not to be objected to; but if the assurance was refused, all intercourse between the two places was to be prohibited.

Porter, accordingly, sent lieutenant Piatt, with a corresponding message to Nacogdoches. Don Sebastian Rodriguez, to whom it was delivered, answered that no encroachment had been intended, nor any violence offered, by any part of his garrison, except so far as was necessary to prevent a contraband trade and the exportation of horses. He added, duty forbade him to give the assurance required, and he had ordered his parties to patrol as far as arrojo hondo.

On Piatt's return, Porter sent captain Turner, with sixty men, to remove the Spanish force from the post they had lately occupied at the Adayes, near Natchitoches. This was effected without difficulty, on the fifth of February, and Turner went to patrol the country, as far as the Sabine.

In the meanwhile, don Sebastian had sent an officer of his garrison to the settlement of Bayou Pierre, to remind the inhabitants of the allegiance they owed to the catholic king, and the obligation they were under to join his standard, whenever called upon by any of his officers. He gave them assurances, that Red river would soon be the boundary between the territory of Spain and that of the United States.

Cordero had sent a large reinforcement to Nacogdoches: Porter had not two hundred men, under his orders, on Red river. In a letter to the secretary of war, of the fifteenth of February, he stated the great disaffection of the people around him: nineteen of

whom, out of twenty, preferred the government of Spain to that of the United States. He attributed this disposition to the intrigues of the marquis de Casa Calvo, who had assured the inhabitants, on his way, that the period was not very distant, when his sovereign would resume possession of the country.

The first territorial legislature, under the new form of government, met in New-Orleans, on the twentyfifth of January: the members of the legislative council, cappointed by the president of the United States, were Bellechasse, Destrehan, Macarty, Sauvé and Jones.

The session lasted for upwards of five months. Among the most important acts is a black code, or statute regulating the police of slaves. Provision was made for establishing schools in the several counties, for regulating the rights and duties of masters, apprentices and indented servants, and for the improvement of the navigation of the canal of Lafourche and the bayou Plaquemines.

The attempt of the former legislative council to procure a civil and criminal code for the territory, having failed, two professional gentlemen were employed to prepare a civil code, and directed to take the former laws of the country as the basis of their work.

The assemblage of several bodies of Spanish troops on the eastern boundary of the province of Texas, rendering the reinforcement of the military posts, in the lower part of the Mississippi necessary, orders had been transmitted from the department of war, as early as the fourth of March, to Wilkinson, who was then at St. Louis, to make the necessary arrangements for the removal of all the troops in his neighbourhood, (except one company) to fort Adams: and four days after he was directed to order colonel Cushing, with

three companies, and four field pieces, to proceed to Natchitoches, without stopping at fort Adams, and to send the rest of the forces down the river, under the orders of lieutenant colonel Kingsbury. On the sixth of May, Wilkinson received orders to repair to the territory of Orleans, or its vicinity, take the command of the regular forces in that quarter, and of such volunteer bodies and militia as might turn out for the defence of the country, and, by all means in his power, to repel any invasion of the territory of the United States.

The secretary of war recommended, that the earliest opportunities should be taken to give to the governors of the provinces of Texas and West Florida, a clear view of the principles on which the government of the United States was acting, viz: that, while negociations were pending, the military posts of neither party should be advanced: that whatever opinion might be entertained with regard to the boundaries of Louisiana, no military measure should be pursued on either side; and it might be depended upon, that none would be resorted to, on the part of the United States, unless the officers of the Catholic king should attempt a change in the existing order of things: that the actual quiet possession by the United States of the country, east of the Sabine, should be insisted upon, (with the trifling exception of the settlement of Bayou Pierre): and any attempt, on the part of Spain to occupy any new post east of the Sabine, would be viewed by the United States, as an invasion of their territorial rights, and resisted as such.

Measures were, at the same time, taken by the department of war for erecting fortifications, at NewOrleans and near it. Nine gunboats were sent to the

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Mississippi, and a considerable number of recruits were sent down the Ohio, and by sea, to fill the companies in that quarter.

Cushing reached Natchitoches on the first of June. The attention of government was not, however, engrossed by these military preparations. Lieutenant Pike was sent, towards the middle of July, up the Missouri, with lieutenant Wilkinson, a son of the general, a surgeon, a sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates and an interpreter. The object of this expedition was to escort several chiefs of the Osage and Pawnee nations, who, with a number of women and children, were returning from a visit to the president of the United States, with their presents and baggage. These Indians, fifty-one in number, had been redeemed from captivity among the Potomatomies, and were to be restored to their friends at the Osage towns.

Although the escorting of these Indians was the first object to which Pike's attention was directed, it was not the principal one: it was next to be turned to the accomplishment of a permanent peace between the Osages and Kanses: a third object was his effecting an interview with the Yanetons, Tetans and Comanches, in order to establish a good understanding among these tribes.

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It being an object of much interest with the president of the United States to ascertain the direction, extension and navigation of the Arkansas and Red rivers, Pike was instructed to go to the head of these streams, and to detach a party, with a few Indians, to descend the first stream, to take the courses and distances, observe the soil, tribes, &c. and note the creeks or bayous falling into the river; this party was,

on reaching the Mississippi, to make the best of its way to fort Adams and wait for further orders.

Pike was next to proceed with the rest of the party to the head of Red river, making particular remarks on the geographical structure, natural history and population of the country: he was furnished with instruments to ascertain the variation of the magnetic needle and the latitude of every remarkable point: to observe the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, and the periods of immersions and emersions, in order that, afterwards, by a resort to particular tables, the longitude of the places of observation might be ascertained. He was directed to descend Red river to Natchitoches.

On the rise of the legislature, Claiborne had ordered parts of the militia of the counties of Opelousas and Rapides, to Natchitoches. On his arrival at the latter place, towards the end of August, he found, that the Spanish force, on the eastern boundary of the province of Texas, was divided into two main bodies: Cordero was at Nacogdoches, with the one, the other was encamped on the western bank of the Sabine, under Herrera. He was informed that, an armed Spanish party had lately gone to the Caddo village, within the territory of the United States, in which that flag was displayed, and had cut down its staff, menacing the peace and tranquility of these Indians, in case they persisted in acknowledging any dependence on the government of the United States, or in keeping up an intercourse with their citizens: that three of the latter, Shaw, Irwin and Brewster, had been apprehended by a Spanish patrol, within twelve miles of Natchi toches, and forcibly carried to Nacogdoches; and that several slaves, the property of citizens of the United States, had escaped from the service of their

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